ITC Says Samsung Infringed On Apple Patents

A woman talks on an iPhone as she walks past construction of a new Apple store in Berlin in April.

Sean Gallup
/ Getty Images

U.S. trade officials have ruled that South Korea's Samsung infringed on patents owned by Apple for specific smartphone features, ratcheting up a tit-for-tat legal battle between the two electronics giants that is matched only by the ferocity of their marketplace competition.

Bloomberg says the patent dispute is over multitouch features and phone jack detection, and that the U.S. International Trade Commission has ordered Samsung to quit importing, selling and distributing devices in the U.S.

However:

"The ruling doesn't make clear how many of Samsung's phones would be affected by the import ban, which is subject to review by the [Obama] administration. Samsung can import all of its phones during that period."